


Wake Me If He Needs Me

by bucky77



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Comfort, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, Friendship, Hurt/Comfort, Meddling TARDIS, Nightmare, TARDIS - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-12
Updated: 2019-12-12
Packaged: 2021-02-25 21:15:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,345
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21772048
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bucky77/pseuds/bucky77
Summary: Rose comforts the Doctor after a nightmare.
Relationships: The Doctor (Doctor Who)/Rose Tyler
Comments: 2
Kudos: 49





	Wake Me If He Needs Me

Rose turned over in her bed, waking up after a long sleep. She yawned and checked the clock beside her bed. She'd only been asleep 4 hours. She rolled over and shut her eyes, but the TARDIS slowly turned on the lights. Rose groaned and flipped the light switch a few times - it didn't work. 

"What are you doing? Turn off the lights." She asked, but the TARDIS only hummed in denial before falling quiet again. Very quiet. 

Finally, Rose sat up. Usually the atmosphere in the TARDIS was accompanied by a low comforting drone, anytime of the day or night. Now it seemed as though an eerie silence had fallen over the ship, and once Rose had noticed this it made her severely uncomfortable. 

She stood, slowly wrapping herself in a robe found at the end of her bed. 

"What's up?" She asked, expecting no answer. The TARDIS hummed, and Rose could have sworn she sounded almost... sad. 

Rose left her bedroom and slowly wondered through the halls of the TARDIS, the eerie silence causing a worry rise in her chest. When she reached the console room, she walked around the time rotor slowly, looking carefully for the Doctor. When she didn't find him, she wondered down the hall again to the second most likely place she would find him. 

She paused in the doorway of the library, letting her eyes adjust to the low light inside. The Doctor often came here on the rare occasion he let himself relax, (when he wasn't fiddling with the TARDIS, of course). She scanned the room, noticing the top of the Doctor's head leaning against the back of the couch. She smiled happily to herself. She had seen the Doctor asleep on exactly two occasions, and it was the most peaceful she had ever seen him. She moved closer, careful not to make any noise, the task seeming more difficult without the usual TARDIS buzz. She walked across the room and saw the Doctor, stretched out with a book resting open on his lap, nestled into the back of the couch. But she quickly realised this was not the peaceful scene she had expected.

The Doctor's eyes were not simply closed, but scrunched shut with force, his face looking pained. His breathing was irregular and his shoulders held more tension than she'd ever seen. Suddenly, he didn't appear to be nestled into the couch, he appeared to be trying to hide in it.

Rose hesitated in shocked silence, until a muttered word - "no" - broke her from her trance. She quickly crossed the room to kneel beside him on the ground.

"No, no, no," he muttered silently, clenching his fists, holding on to nothing. Now she was closer, Rose could see beads of sweat forming on his forehead, and she noticed how his hands shook ever so slightly.

"Doctor?" she whispered, trying to wake him without startling him. He didn't react to her voice, and so she hesitantly reached out and placed her hands over his. The tight fists seemed to relax somewhat, but he continued muttering phrases she could no longer understand under his breath. She waited for a moment, wondering what she should do next when the Doctor let out a pitiful whimper that tore at her heart. She had never seen the Doctor utterly hopeless before, she could never even imagine it.

"Doctor, wake up." She asked him, louder this time, but still wary of startling him.

"No!" he sobbed, loud enough to startle Rose. She grabbed a hold of one of his shoulders and shook him gently.

"Doctor!" she called out again. This time, the Doctor sat suddenly bolt upright, automatically scooting as far back to the corner of the large couch as he could. His gaze darted frantically around the room, half asleep, as though trying to comprehend where he was. When Rose looked into his eyes she saw nothing but unbridled terror. Finally, his gaze landed on Rose, but he appeared for a moment to be looking through her, not at her, totally disconnected from reality. Rose reached out a hand slowly, rubbing comforting circles on his knee to let him know she was there for him without invading his personal space. 

"It's okay Doctor, I'm here." she said in her most soothing voice. He kept his eyes fixed on her, and, although wary, she could see he was slowly beginning to come back to himself.

"Rose?" he asked in a voice no louder than a whisper. 

"Hi," she whispered back, giving him a soft smile. She expected the Doctor to show some sign of relief, or relax a bit, when he realised he was no longer in his nightmare, but he remained on high alert. His shoulders were tense, he kept his defensive position in the corner of the couch, and his face wore a blank mask the Rose could not decipher. She watched him in silence for a while, and he watched her back, emotionless and shocked. Rose realised, in her confusion as to why he wasn't relieved, that this was the Doctor. The always okay Doctor who spent his life parading a care-free air while he ran about the universe in his magical blue box. He hated being seen this way, defenceless and afraid, and now she had realised this she could practically see the cogs turning in his brain as to how he would get out of this with dignity. Nevertheless, she wouldn't leave him alone like this. Never.

"Are you alright?" she asked him softly. His demeanour didn't change, letting off no indication he had even heard her speak apart from the tears that began building up in his eyes and the slight tremble of his bottom lip. Rose's heart shattered all over again and she wasted no time in shuffling onto the couch beside him, wrapped her arm over his shoulder and pulling him into her.

"You're okay. You're here now," she muttered comfortingly. The Doctor remained tense and on edge for a few more seconds, long enough for Rose to wonder if he really wanted her there with him, before she felt the tension in his shoulders lessen and his weight slowly lean into her. The pair sank back slightly, leaning against the back of the couch in silence, as Rose used her free hand to softly caress his arm, trying to calm him further. She sat with him in silence as she felt his irregular shaky breaths rack through him, happy to sit and hold him for as long as he needed. In the background, the TARDIS hummed soothingly and flooded the room with a little extra warmth to comfort him. This seemed to be exactly what the Doctor needed, as Rose heard his breathing slowly return to normal. She dared a glance down at the Doctor's face to see his eyes were shut and a frown tugged at the corners of his lips. The sad sight made her sigh, which in turn caused the Doctor to sit up again and look at her.

"I thought you were asleep?" He asked, clearly embarrassed, trying to change the subject. Rose wasn't trying to be insensitive, but she didn't feel like letting him drop the topic that quickly would be the right course of action.

"Your TARDIS was worried about you," Rose replied.

"She shouldn't have woken you, you should get your sleep. Big day tomorrow!" he feigned cheeriness, but failed miserably. "I'm fine, I'm okay, you need some rest," he ranted before Rose cut him off.

"No, I needed to be here with you." She looked sincerely into his eyes, matching his intense gaze almost like a challenge. He signed, remembering Rose didn't let things go without a fight. The Doctor took a deep breath, steeling himself to argue with her.

"Rose, I'm fine, really."

"Doctor..." Rose reached out a hand to grab one of his, stroking soothing circles. "You're still shaken up, which means you're not fine. You know it, and now you know I know it too. You don't have to talk about it, I won't make you, but I'm not leaving you alone." When she finished talking and noticed him about to argue with her again, she added "I don't want to argue with you, not now, but I will." A look of resignation crossed the Doctor's face as he realised she was being serious. He let out a shaky breath he didn't realise he was holding and slumped against the back of the couch, looking down at their hands, stilling entwined. He grabbed her hand a little tighter.

They sat in silence for what felt like hours. Rose watched the Doctor's face as he sat with her. With every passing second he looked more and more sad, as he slowly became too tired to keep up the mask. She decided she had pushed him enough for now, and he last thing he needed was to feel attacked, so she simply watched and waited, wondering what he would do first.

When he did look up at her it was only for a second, before he looked sideways and began running his eyes over the editions of nearby library books.

"I never liked reading much," he broke the silence finally, "not until I got on board the TARDIS. I never bought any of these. She just put them here. I don't even think I liked reading that much in the beginning, I just liked being in this room..." he trailed off, lost once again in thought. Rose had to hold back the grin that threatened to break out on her face. She knew he was trying to diffuse the situation, but she couldn't help but love when he talked about things he loved. 

"She really does know you," she answered.

"Yeah, she does." The Doctor would have smiled if he didn't remember that it was the TARDIS who woke Rose in the middle of the night just to comfort him. Rose saw the tension return to his shoulders and a weight settled in her chest. She really didn't know how to help him beyond just being here for him. But there was something else, something right in front of her that she hadn't noticed, and she felt it tugging at her. What else was wrong?

A soft sniffle snapped her out of her thoughts and she noticed a single tear fall down the Doctor's cheek. As quickly as it had happened, the Doctor wiped it away and laughed, embarrassed.

"I'm sorry," he said, turning to face completely away from her. She moved a bit closer to him, still trying to stay out of his personal space while reinforcing that she was still there for him.

"Why do you say that?" she asked.

"Because this is ridiculous. It was just a nightmare! I'm fine," he answered, exasperated at how shaken up he really was.

"Doctor, it's not a bad thing to not be fine." He glanced up at her when she said this, eyes filled with a mix of emotion she couldn't quite decipher, before he pried his hand away from hers and used both his hands to cover his face, letting out a series of shaky breaths. Rose shuffled closer, throwing all concern for his personal space out the window, and wrapped her arms around his shoulders. To her surprise, he leant into her and wrapped his arms around her, too. He buried his head into the crook of her neck and she felt his whole body shake with a heartbreaking sob. Rose pulled him closer and rubbed his back softly, fingers tracing over his shoulders as the shook with his shaky breathing.

Suddenly, she realised what had seemed so wrong about the Doctor, that thing that was staring her right in the face. He looked tired. She had seen the Doctor sad before, and angry, but never tired. She knew Time Lords didn't need to sleep as much as she did, but she was beginning to wonder whether he'd been getting enough. 

The Doctor leant away from her, wiping his eyes and lowering his head in shame, still, it seemed, trying to hide himself away from Rose.

"You're tired," she blurted out before she could stop herself, not wanting to bring up yet another problem but feeling like it needed to be said.

"I'm fine," he insisted yet again.

"You need to get some more rest," she told him, still employing her best comforting voice.

"Can't," the Doctor argued, "too many things to do, people to meet, worlds to save." He watched Rose's reaction to his ramblings and looked crestfallen when he realised she wasn't buying into it.

"You're no help for anyone if you're not at 100%." He just looked up at her, a touch of fear returning to his eyes for the first time since he'd woken up. He took a deep breath before deciding he might as well open up to her.

"I don't want to go back there," his voice cracked under the weight of the revelation, and he coughed to try and cover it up.

"Come here," said Rose, scooting backwards along the couch and leaning against the corner. She opened her arms for the Doctor to follow her, but he hesitated. "Come on," she insisted and he finally caved, shuffling up beside her and lying down in her arms. She rested her head on top of his as he in turn relaxed into her.

"I am right here, and I'll wake you up if you end up back there." The Doctor showed no sign hat he'd heard her, but stayed where he was. It was barely minutes later when Rose felt him take a deep breath in her arms and his weight increased ever so slightly. She smiled at the knowledge that he was fast asleep once more, and shut her eyes, content.

"Wake me if he needs me," she mumbled to the TARDIS, and a hum of approval gave her all the confidence she could ever need to slip away into a deep sleep herself.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments and constructive criticism always appreciated! I don't own any of these characters.


End file.
